diff --git a/gitnexus/src/core/ingestion/call-processor.ts b/gitnexus/src/core/ingestion/call-processor.ts
index 35a59dab4..e9770fe9f 100644
--- a/gitnexus/src/core/ingestion/call-processor.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/src/core/ingestion/call-processor.ts
@@ -766,6 +766,15 @@ export const processCalls = async (
   importedRawReturnTypesMap?: ReadonlyMap<string, ReadonlyMap<string, string>>,
   heritageMap?: HeritageMap,
   bindingAccumulator?: BindingAccumulator,
+  /**
+   * Optional cache for compiled `Parser.Query` objects keyed by language name.
+   * When provided, compiled queries are reused across calls instead of being
+   * re-compiled from the query string for every file. Callers that invoke
+   * `processCalls` many times with single-file batches (e.g. the cross-file
+   * propagation phase) should pass a long-lived map here to avoid O(N)
+   * query recompilation overhead.
+   */
+  compiledQueryCache?: Map<string, Parser.Query>,
 ): Promise<ExtractedHeritage[]> => {
   const parser = await loadParser();
   const collectedHeritage: ExtractedHeritage[] = [];
@@ -843,7 +852,11 @@ export const processCalls = async (
     let matches;
     try {
       const lang = parser.getLanguage();
-      const query = new Parser.Query(lang, queryStr);
+      let query = compiledQueryCache?.get(language);
+      if (!query) {
+        query = new Parser.Query(lang, queryStr);
+        compiledQueryCache?.set(language, query);
+      }
       matches = query.matches(tree.rootNode);
     } catch (queryError) {
       logger.warn({ queryError }, `Query error for ${file.path}:`);
diff --git a/gitnexus/src/core/ingestion/pipeline-phases/cross-file-impl.ts b/gitnexus/src/core/ingestion/pipeline-phases/cross-file-impl.ts
index 1d8d000fc..53913b954 100644
--- a/gitnexus/src/core/ingestion/pipeline-phases/cross-file-impl.ts
+++ b/gitnexus/src/core/ingestion/pipeline-phases/cross-file-impl.ts
@@ -16,12 +16,13 @@ import {
 } from '../call-processor.js';
 import type { createResolutionContext } from '../model/resolution-context.js';
 import { createASTCache } from '../ast-cache.js';
-import { type PipelineProgress, getLanguageFromFilename } from 'gitnexus-shared';
+import { type PipelineProgress, getLanguageFromFilename, type SupportedLanguages } from 'gitnexus-shared';
 import { readFileContents } from '../filesystem-walker.js';
 import { isLanguageAvailable } from '../../tree-sitter/parser-loader.js';
 import { topologicalLevelSort } from '../utils/graph-sort.js';
 import type { KnowledgeGraph } from '../../graph/types.js';
 import { isDev } from '../utils/env.js';
+import type Parser from 'tree-sitter';
 
 import { logger } from '../../logger.js';
 /** Max AST trees to keep in LRU cache for cross-file binding propagation. */
@@ -128,8 +129,33 @@ export async function runCrossFileBindingPropagation(
   const crossFileStart = Date.now();
   const crossFileDeadlineMs = getCrossFileTimeoutMs();
   const astCache = createASTCache(AST_CACHE_CAP);
+  // Compiled query objects keyed by language name. Shared across all processCalls
+  // invocations in this phase so the same tree-sitter query string is only
+  // compiled once per language instead of once per file (O(1) vs O(N)).
+  const queryCache = new Map<SupportedLanguages, Parser.Query>();
   let timedOut = false;
 
+  // Snapshot total topological candidates for progress math.  We walk the
+  // levels once more here (fast — no I/O) so we can report meaningful
+  // percentages rather than a frozen display.
+  let totalCandidates = 0;
+  for (const level of levels) {
+    for (const filePath of level) {
+      if (totalCandidates >= MAX_CROSS_FILE_REPROCESS) break;
+      const imports = ctx.namedImportMap.get(filePath);
+      if (!imports) continue;
+      if (!allPathSet.has(filePath)) continue;
+      const lang = getLanguageFromFilename(filePath);
+      if (!lang || !isLanguageAvailable(lang)) continue;
+      totalCandidates++;
+    }
+    if (totalCandidates >= MAX_CROSS_FILE_REPROCESS) break;
+  }
+  const cappedTotal = Math.min(totalCandidates, MAX_CROSS_FILE_REPROCESS);
+
+  /** Emit a progress event every PROGRESS_INTERVAL files so the UI stays alive. */
+  const PROGRESS_INTERVAL = 25;
+
   for (const level of levels) {
     if (timedOut) break;
 
@@ -214,8 +240,24 @@ export async function runCrossFileBindingPropagation(
         bindings.size > 0 ? bindings : undefined,
         importedReturnTypesMap.size > 0 ? importedReturnTypesMap : undefined,
         importedRawReturnTypesMap.size > 0 ? importedRawReturnTypesMap : undefined,
+        undefined,
+        undefined,
+        queryCache,
       );
       crossFileResolved++;
+
+      // Emit progress every PROGRESS_INTERVAL files so the UI shows real
+      // movement instead of a frozen display (cross-file can take minutes
+      // on large repos with many cross-file imports).
+      if (crossFileResolved % PROGRESS_INTERVAL === 0 || crossFileResolved === cappedTotal) {
+        const pct = cappedTotal > 0 ? Math.round((crossFileResolved / cappedTotal) * 8) : 0;
+        onProgress({
+          phase: 'parsing',
+          percent: 82 + pct,
+          message: `Cross-file type propagation (${crossFileResolved}/${cappedTotal} files)...`,
+          stats: { filesProcessed: crossFileResolved, totalFiles, nodesCreated: graph.nodeCount },
+        });
+      }
     }
 
     if (crossFileResolved >= MAX_CROSS_FILE_REPROCESS) {